A place where common sense comes back 'round to bite you in the ass...

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Like all things, this too, shall pass...Yay!

Well, it seems that the Man Cold might be moving on. Leo was feeling better yesterday, and even cooked us a yummy dinner after work, which I really appreciated since it was my day to feel off kilter, apparently. (My lower back was achy and being mean, so I wasn’t interested in cooking.)

The physical went well. We talked about my heart flutteriness, and the tight chest feeling I get sometimes when I’m feeling stressed and moving quickly. We also talked about the development of the facial ticks I get when I’m tired and/or stressed. And the mood swings. My blood tests all came back with decent numbers, with the only concern being in the triglycerides area. My good cholesterol is in a great place, and while my bad cholesterol is a bit high, it’s not a scary high. (I’d still like to work on it, though…probly need to cut out any and all ranch dressing intake, dammit. It’s not a lot, I swear! Gah. Stupid body…) I probably don’t have any cancers, I’m not on the verge of diabetes at all, and my thyroid hasn’t given up on me yet, which is all good news.

So. To battle the triglycerides, the doctor said that giving up the beer intake would really help. Done, I said. I’ll give it up for Lent. (Vodka is ok, she said. So I’ll just be switching back to having a couple of blueberry Stoli’s and soda with lime on Saturdays instead of the 4 – 6 Bud Lights that I had been having. No big deal.) The wine I drink is fine, especially because I don’t drink it to excess. So that’s the plan. And before anyone goes making “helpful” suggestions, just know that we rarely eat red meat – and when we do, its usually lamb, I eat a lot of beans and tomatoes and veggies, and while I’ve been working on incorporating dairy back into my diet, it’s only lowfat/2% options like cottage cheese, sour cream, and goat cheese. No ice cream. And butter is used sparingly. We eat buffalo (which is an ultra-lean red meat that processes in your body like turkey or chicken), turkey, chicken, and fish. So really, the beer thing makes the most sense for me. We’ll see what happens after I cut it out for a year…I bet the numbers go down!

The heart stuff concerned her a bit, so she’s sending me for a stress test and EKG tomorrow morning, just to be sure nothing is too far out of whack. I expect things to be fine, but we’ll see. I noticed last night when I took Advil for my lower back pain, and then laid down on the couch, that the fluttery feeling was there for a little bit. Not in a terribly bad way at all…but it was there. I thought that was an interesting correlation, and plan to bring it up with whoever is running my stress test tomorrow morning.

The facial ticks – well, I’ve had them for years. My eyes tick almost constantly. It used to really bother me when I was at my old job with the mortgage company, so I looked it up once. Said that a major cause of the ticks is stress and being tired. Both of which I was dealing with on a regular basis.

Lately, I’ve noticed a new tick. When I blink, the left side of my mouth responds by twitching with the blink. Sometimes, it’s more pronounced, and that’s usually when I’m really tired and/or stressed. So I don’t think much of it, but the doctor wanted me to pay attention to it, and thinks that a visit to a neurologist might be in order as well. Just to be sure. I’ll monitor it over the next month, and figure out what needs to be done. If it weren’t for my regular bouts with headaches as well, and the horrible moods those headaches put me in, I’d dismiss any worry at all. But putting all of those things together, along with the fact that the mouth tick just started happening over the last couple of weeks, and I think getting checked out by a neurologist might not be all that bad of an idea. We’ll see.

Coupling the renouncement of beer with my current Weight Watchers movement should help with the poundage loss as well. I’m down a few pounds (like 4…so not a huge amount by any means) since I started WW, and tend to lose about a half a pound to a pound a week. Superbowl week threw things off…I’d lost 3 pounds up till then, and then gained it all back after the game! So it was like starting from scratch again, and I’m not letting that happen from here on out. While I ate like a queen when we were on vacation, we moved around so much between our trip to San Diego, visits to the local beach at dad’s, and the museum visit in Malibu, that I didn’t gain anything while away. And I’m looking forward to the weather improving, so I can incorporate more walks into my daily routine soon.

So, basically, I’m on the road to good health after taking a few months off. I wish I didn’t have to give up beer, but it’s for the best, I suppose. So long, old friend! I’ll see you again when I’m in my 70’s, and I just don’t care anymore about what you do to my body!

Sounds like you are dealing well with your results. I Love beer, but haven't had one in over almost a month because of the pain management stuff I am taking. Of course I can't just switch to liquor, you are lucky.